Wednesday, April 29, 2015

The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. Those who know your name trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you. Psalm 9:9–10, NIV

Lord our God, we look to you in our many needs, in the distress of our hearts, in the anguish of the whole world. We beseech you, let light come to your people everywhere on earth to bring them your help and your victory. Remember the wretched, the sick, the poor. Let your living strength come to them so that they can bear their sufferings and hold out joyfully to the end. Remember us all, O Lord our God, for we all need you. We are weak and poor and cannot go forward alone. Your Spirit must help us. May the Savior come to us, and may his grace and his power be born in our hearts. Amen.

Daily Dig for April 29

Eberhard Arnold

It is a simple thing: joy in everything that lives. Anyone who can rejoice in life, in other people, in the fellowship of church community – anyone who feels joy in the mutual relationships of trust and inner fellowship – such a person experiences what love is. Anyone who cannot feel joy cannot live.… Only where there is joy do love and justice dwell. We need the spirit of joy to overcome the gloomy spirit of covetousness, the spirit of unjust mammon and its deadly hate. We can only have such joy if we have faith, and if we believe that the earth has a future.Source: Salt and Light

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

The mystery of the poor is this: That they are Jesus, and what you do for them you do for him. It is the only way we have of knowing and believing in our love. The mystery of poverty is that by sharing in it, making ourselves poor in giving to others, we increase our knowledge of and belief in love.
Source: Dorothy Day: Selected Writings

You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. Psalm 16:11, NIV

Dear Father in heaven, you show us the way of life; in your presence is fullness of joy, and at your right hand is delight forever. In your presence we want to rejoice together as your children, under your protection. May we become firm in every part of our life on earth. Grant that soon something of your kingdom, of your heaven, may encircle us like a blessing, enabling us to fight on in joy and exultation. We entrust ourselves to you, our faithful and loving God, and we thank you. Amen.

Monday, April 27, 2015

God uses suffering to call us into the peace of his presence. If God could not use pain and suffering for our good, then he would not allow such things to remain in the world. The grain of wheat must lie in the dark womb of the earth before it can be called forth into the open air by the light and the warmth of the sun. Then it grows into a healthy plant and bears fruit.
Source: Wisdom of the Sadhu
Daily Prayer for April 27

You answered me when I called to you; with your strength you strengthened me. Psalm 138:3, TEV

Dear Father in heaven, we thank you that we are your children and that your eyes watch over us and see all that is in our hearts. You hear the request of each heart, and you will answer at the right time. Stretch out your strong hand to us, for we are weak and often heavy-hearted, not knowing what to do nor how to find you. But you are with us in every need in spite of all our faults and shortcomings. You are with us; you lead us through everything to our life’s true goal, until each of us can rejoice over all you have done, to the praise of your name, our Father. Amen.

Thursday, April 23, 2015

I look for your deliverance, Lord. Genesis 49:18, NIV Lord our God, help us in these days that are so difficult for us. Help us never to lose our expectation of the time that is to come, the time of Jesus Christ, Lord of heaven and earth. Strengthen us, we pray, and strengthen those all over the world who have to endure great suffering, especially the destitute and the dying. May your heavenly hosts come down to the many who are in misery, so that your name is praised in life and in death, in whatever we have to go through. For we shall praise you, no matter what happens now or in the days ahead. May your glory remain in our hearts, with the joy that you, O God, are the Father of all. Amen.

If God exists, why evil? If God is love, why sorrow? If God is a father, why death? If I have knocked, why has he not opened to me? Wait! Believe in him not out of self-interest, but out of love! If you want to reach the Promised Land, you must accept the scandal of all the things you don’t understand right to the limits. Having faith means believing that he fills all space, that no leap can cast me out from his arms. Having faith means believing that he knows everything, that before I arrive he runs through the infinitely complicated plan of my existence all the way to its conclusion, like an ever new problem solved by his infinite love: my final entry into his kingdom.
Source: The God Who Comes

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

We love the soil because God’s spirit spoke and created the earth,
and because he called it out of its uncultivated natural state
so that it might be cultivated
by the communal work of human beings.
We love physical work –
the work of muscle and hand –
and we love the craftsman’s art,
in which the spirit guides the hand.
In the way spirit and hand work together
and through each other,
we see the mystery of community.
God – the creative Spirit – has formed nature, and he has entrusted the earth to us,
his sons and daughters,
as an inheritance but also as a task: our garden must become his garden,
and our work must further his kingdom.
Source: Plough Quarterly No.4: Earth

Meister Eckhart says, " Every creature is a Word of God".and N.T.Wright says in his new book "Surprised by Scripture, " The resurrection of Jesus is the reaffirmation of the goodness of creation, and the gift of the Spirit is there to make us the fully human beings we were supposed to be precisely so that we can fulfill that madate at last. What are we waiting for? Jesus is coming. Let's go plant a Tree.

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

And this is the simple truth: that to live is to feel oneself lost. He who accepts it has already begun to find himself, to be on firm ground. Instinctively, as do the shipwrecked, he will look around for something to which to cling, and that tragic, ruthless glance, absolutely sincere, because it is a question of his salvation, will cause him to bring order into the chaos of his life. These are the only genuine ideas; the ideas of the shipwrecked. All the rest is rhetoric, posturing, farce.
Source: Provocations

But I trust in you, Lord; I say, “You are my God.” My times are in your hands; deliver me from the hands of my enemies, from those who pursue me. Let your face shine on your servant; save me in your unfailing love. Psalm 31:14–16, NIV

Dear Father in heaven, we turn to you. Hear our longing, hear our hopes, hear our faith! Our future lies in your hands. Free each heart from discouragement and sadness over the many evils of the world. Make us free from earthly things, free yet bound in spirit with you, O God. Help us on our pilgrimage toward eternity. As we walk with you, fill us with hope that the whole world will see the light, for in your light alone can we find fullness of life. Protect us and bless us through your Spirit. Amen.

I don’t believe in charity. I believe in solidarity. Charity is so vertical. It goes from the top to the bottom. Solidarity is horizontal. It respects the other person and learns from the other. I have a lot to learn from other people.
Source: Louder than Bombs

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25–26, NIV Dear Father in heaven, to you we entrust everything, for you have given us life and will call us to resurrection. You will help your children, your humankind, to reach what you have called them to. Protect your Church on earth. Let her soon see your glory. Let her see Jesus Christ intervening in people’s lives and destinies until, shaken and trembling, they have to recognize that they should love and honor Jesus alone, to your honor, O Father in heaven. We thank you for all you have given us in your Word, which enables us to become your children and to find your way for us on earth. Bless us and give us the Holy Spirit. Protect us this night. Protect us so that nothing evil can harm us. Amen.

Monday, April 13, 2015

AMMAN, Jordan -- When I was a student at the old Institute for Pastoral Liturgical Ministries operated by the Archdiocese of Detroit, one priest who taught a class looked askance at the practice of some Catholics to memorize the Mass schedules of nearby churches, then drive to each church and stay for the priest's words of institution during the Eucharistic Prayer, at which point the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ, then scoot off to the next church to do the same, and repeat the process all Sunday. He dismissed their staying only for what he called "the gaze that saves."

I hadn't thought about that in years and years until I was on my way to Jordan to participate in a tour of holy and sacred biblical sites in the nation. Another trip participant had said before he left, "I'll get to celebrate Easter twice this year!" This year, Eastern Catholic churches and churches in the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem -- which includes Jordan -- began celebrating Easter with the Orthodox, according to the Julian calendar.

A little girl stares at the candle held by her mother during the Easter Vigil at St. Peter Church in Amman, Jordan. (CNS/Mark Pattison)

I could see the participant's point if one were ordained clergy or a liturgical minister who got the chance to "go civilian" and take in Easter as a member of the assembly. But I had argued to myself, wasn't the 8 a.m. Mass I went to on Easter Sunday enough? And that reminded me of a second priest whose name I can't remember who once said, "Every Sunday isn't a 'little Easter.' Easter is a big Sunday!"

But our schedule dictated a visit to a Melkite Catholic church in Amman, Jordan's capital and largest city, for the Easter Vigil. So I kept my consternation to myself and hopped in the van with everyone else.

The church was packed. My estimate is that the small church, even with extra chairs along the sides and in the front, held a standing-room-only crowd of 350.

I had gone to a Melkite Divine Liturgy last June while on assignment for Catholic News Service, but hardly an Easter Vigil. It was comforting to hear the melody of the Exultet, albeit in Arabic. I started in the back of the church, then worked my way to a comfortable leaning position against a side wall of the church halfway in so I could take better photos. After about 10 minutes, one of the clerics invited me and several of my tour companions to take seats in the front. What great luck!

We were there another 10 minutes or so when a representative of the Jordan Tourism Board whispered to us that we all had to leave. What? Why? What had we done? Had we violated some protocol -- maybe using flash photography? If so, why were we invited to sit in front in the first place? I definitely had more questions than answers.

It turns out we were in the wrong church!

This had been a Latin-rite church where the van driver had taken us. That could account for the Exultet.

Melkite Father Nabil Haddad proclaims the Gospel during the Easter Vigil celebration at Sts. Peter and Paul Melkite Catholic Church in Amman, Jordan. (CNS/Mark Pattison)

The Melkite Church of Sts. Peter and Paul was three minutes away by car. We got there late as well, it goes without saying. The church was also standing-room only, but far smaller than our first church that night; I estimate fewer than 100 were there, including us.

It was comforting, though, to see that the small-C catholic part of the Catholic Church held true regardless of rite: People don't like to sit in the front pew! Here, too, there were empty seats right up front, and we were guided to them.

A Melkite liturgy is almost entirely sung and is quite dynamic: There is always motion or something going on, sometimes more than one thing at the same time. Also celebrated entirely in Arabic except for the Kyrie I heard midway through, this liturgy was beautiful in its own way. Latin-rite Catholics owe it to themselves to take in a Divine Liturgy at least once in their life.

If you ask me if I have any regrets, I'd say my only regret is not being able to take part in a Sunday morning Chaldean-rite Easter Mass in Amman.

- - -

I will blog from time to time about things I've encountered on my Jordan journey. Also, look me up on Twitter at @MeMarkPattison for Jordan-related tweets. Others on this tour will use the same Hashtags: #holyjordan.

While Jesus was in Jerusalem one of the rulers of the Jews, a man named Nicodemus, came to see him. He came in the night, perhaps because he was afraid to be seen coming in the daytime. He said to Jesus, Master, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no man can do these wonderful things that you do unless God is with him.

Jesus said to Nicodemus, I say to you in truth, that unless a man is born anew he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Nicodemus did not know that this meant that to be saved we must have new hearts given to us by the Lord. He said, How can a man be born twice? How can one be born again after he has grown up?

Oswald Chambers

Patience is more than endurance.

A saint’s life is in the hands of God like a bow and arrow in the hands of an archer. God is aiming at something the saint cannot see, and he stretches and strains, and every now and again the saint says, “I cannot stand anymore.” God does not heed, he goes on stretching till his purpose is in sight, then he lets fly. Trust yourself in God’s hands. Maintain your relationship to Jesus Christ by the patience of faith.

Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground. Psalm 143:10, NIV Lord our God, O great and almighty One, whose Spirit fills heaven and earth! We thank you that you are our Father and that in you we have a refuge wherever we must go as we serve you on earth. We thank you that your life can be revealed in us and can flow through us so that the world may be blest by you, our loving and caring Father. Protect us and strengthen us in times of trouble and sorrow. When we travel on new paths, give us your Spirit to show us the way, that everything may lead to the good and to your honor. Father, through your Spirit unite us in the unshakable hope that your will shall at last be done on earth as in heaven. Grant that we may rejoice in the certainty that whatever happens, our paths are made level and firm by your love and your faithfulness. Amen.

Sunday, April 12, 2015

I cannot helpwondering
whether in these days when so large a proportion of humanity is submerged in materialism, God does not want there to be some men and women who have given themselves to him and to Christ and who yet remain outside the church. What frightens me is the church as a social structure. And not only on account of its blemishes. Insofar as the church is merely a social structure, it belongs to the prince of this world... I do not want to be adopted into another circle, another human milieu. I want nothing else but obedience – even unto the cross. That is the true haven, as you know: the cross.
Source: Waiting for GodSimone Weil was a Jewish person who was drawn to the Catholic Church but never entered it.She loved it from afar.

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. Philippians 3:20-21, NIV

Lord our God, draw us to yourself. Draw us into the quiet that you give, where something can happen to us and to our hearts. Help us to discern your kingdom surrounding us and in our spirits to live in this kingdom. Then our life will be as if in heaven, where we need not worry or torment ourselves, where your power is everything to us, penetrating our earthly life, which so often weighs us down. We thank you that you have made a way of strength, full of power to hold us firmly, so that even when we stumble, we cannot be turned from the goal. We thank you for all the good that comes from you, which we cannot see in earthly things but which can invade our hearts with such mighty and uplifting power. Amen.

Saturday, April 11, 2015

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis formally presented his official proclamation of the 2015-2016 extraordinary jubilee or Holy Year of Mercy this evening before celebrating vespers in St. Peter’s Basilica.

The proclamation, called a “bull of indiction,” is titled “Misericordiae Vultus” (“The Face of Mercy”) and explains how in Jesus Christ, in his words and actions, the mercy of God has been revealed.

Pope Francis said in the document that he wants the year, which will begin Dec. 8, to be a time for Catholics to contemplate just how merciful God has been to them and to understand better how they are called to be merciful to others in turn.

Mercy, the pope wrote, is “the beating heart of the Gospel.”

“How much I desire that the year to come will be steeped in mercy, so that we can go out to every man and woman, bringing the goodness and tenderness of God,” he wrote. “May the balm of mercy reach everyone, both believers and those far away, as a sign that the kingdom of God is already present in our midst.”

Nothing in the church’s preaching or witness, he said, can be lacking in mercy.

The Holy Door at St. Peter's Basilica decorated this evening. (Screen grab)

Pope Francis asked that every diocese in the world designate a “Door of Mercy” at their cathedral or another special church or shrine, and that every diocese implement the “24 Hours for the Lord” initiative on the Friday and Saturday before the fourth week of Lent. In Rome the last two years, the pope has opened the celebration with a penance service in St. Peter’s Basilica and churches around the city were open for the next 24 hours for confessions and eucharistic adoration.

The pope said he will designate and send out “Missionaries of Mercy” to preach about mercy; they will be given special authority, he said, “to pardon even those sins reserved to the Holy See.” Under church law, those sins involve: a man who directly participated in an abortion and later wants to enter the priesthood; priests who have broken the seal of confession; priests who have offered sacramental absolution to their own sexual partners; desecrating the Eucharist; and making an attempt on the life of the pope. Usually, the Apostolic Penitentiary, a Vatican court, handles those cases.

Venerating the cross before vespers in St. Peter's Basilica. (Screen grab)

And he urged all Catholics to spend more time practicing what traditionally have been called the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. The corporal works are: Feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, visiting the sick, visiting the imprisoned, giving drink to the thirsty and burying the dead. The spiritual works are: Converting sinners, instructing the ignorant, advising the doubtful, comforting the sorrowful, bearing wrongs patiently, forgiving injuries and praying for the living and dead.

Here is the Vatican’s translation of the prepared text of the pope’s brief homily this evening at first vespers for Divine Mercy Sunday:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The greeting of the risen Christ to his disciples on the evening of Easter, “Peace be with you!” (Jn 20:19), continues to resound in us all. Peace, especially during this Easter season, remains the desire of so many people who suffer unprecedented violence of discrimination and death simply because they bear the name “Christian.” Our prayer is all the more intense and becomes a cry for help to the Father, who is rich in mercy, that he may sustain the faith of our many brothers and sisters who are in pain. At the same time, we ask for the grace of the conversion of our own hearts so as to move from indifference to compassion.

St. Paul reminds us that we have been saved through the mystery of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. He is the reconciler, who is alive in our midst offering the way to reconciliation with God and with each other. The Apostle recalls that, notwithstanding the difficulties and the sufferings of life, the hope of salvation which Christ has sown in our hearts nonetheless continues to grow. The mercy of God is poured out upon us, making us just and giving us peace.

Many question in their hearts: Why a Jubilee of Mercy today? Simply because the church, in this time of great historical change, is called to offer more evident signs of God’s presence and closeness. This is not the time to be distracted; on the contrary, we need to be vigilant and to reawaken in ourselves the capacity to see what is essential. This is a time for the church to rediscover the meaning of the mission entrusted to her by the Lord on the day of Easter: to be a sign and an instrument of the Father’s mercy (cf. Jn 20:21-23). For this reason, the Holy Year must keep alive the desire to know how to welcome the numerous signs of the tenderness which God offers to the whole world and, above all, to those who suffer, who are alone and abandoned, without hope of being pardoned or feeling the Father’s love. A Holy Year to experience strongly within ourselves the joy of having been found by Jesus, the Good Shepherd who has come in search of us because we were lost. A Jubilee to receive the warmth of his love when he bears us upon his shoulders and brings us back to the Father’s house. A year in which to be touched by the Lord Jesus and to be transformed by his mercy, so that we may become witnesses to mercy. Here, then, is the reason for the Jubilee: because this is the time for mercy. It is the favorable time to heal wounds, a time not to be weary of meeting all those who are waiting to see and to touch with their hands the signs of the closeness of God, a time to offer everyone the way of forgiveness and reconciliation.

May the Mother of God open our eyes, so that we may comprehend the task to which we have been called; and may she obtain for us the grace to experience this Jubilee of Mercy as faithful and fruitful witnesses of Christ.

Resurrection life dwells—abides—in us. Rob Bell says that “Resurrection means God has not given up on the world because this world matters”:

This world of dirt and blood and sweat and skin and light and water. This world that God is redeeming and restoring and renewing. Greed and violence and abuse—they are not right—and they cannot last. They belong to death and death does not belong.Resurrection says that what we do with our lives matters…in this body the one that we inhabit right now. Every act of compassion matters. Every work of art that celebrates the good and the true matters. Every fair and honest act of business and trade. Every kind word. They all belong and they will all go on in God’s good world. Nothing will be forgotten. Nothing will be wasted.

Jesus expects us to have faith amid the darkness. As Christ pulled the hand of Thomas toward his sacred, transfigured wounds, he said to him “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. But believe!”“My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed. Then Jesus tells him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.”John Updike, a contemporary American writer, was one of those who, like us, never saw the resurrected Christ for himself and yet he believed.In 1960, as a young man, he entered a poetry contest at a Methodist church in Massachusetts. He won the prize: $100. And he gave the money back to the church, but the real miracle is the poem itself, “Seven Stanzas at Easter”:

Make no mistake: if He rose at all it was as His body; if the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the molecules reknit, the amino acids rekindle, the Church will fall.It was not as the flowers, each soft Spring recurrent; it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled eyes of the eleven apostles; it was as His flesh: ours.The same hinged thumbs and toes, the same valved heart that–pierced–died, withered, paused, and then regathered out of enduring Might new strength to enclose.Let us not mock God with metaphor, analogy, sidestepping, transcendence; making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the faded credulity of earlier ages: let us walk through the door.

The stone is rolled back, not papier-mâché, not a stone in a story, but the vast rock of materiality that in the slow grinding of time will eclipse for each of us the wide light of day.And if we will have an angel at the tomb, make it a real angel, weighty with Max Planck’s quanta, vivid with hair, opaque in the dawn light, robed in real linen spun on a definite loom.Let us not seek to make it less monstrous, for our own convenience, our own sense of beauty, lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are embarrassed by the miracle, and crushed by remonstrance.

Now that’s a description of Easter. It’s material and it’s supernatural all at once.And so, with Updike and with the Magdalene, through tears—even as we suffer and rejoice and believe and expect a miracle in this space between Holy Saturday and Easter—we find ourselves once again on the road to Bethany and, with Martha, we encounter Jesus, and we hear the words of the Teacher:

“I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this?”

Thursday, April 9, 2015

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him. John 14:18-21, NIV

Lord our God, dear Father in heaven, we are gathered in your presence through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Reveal to us our Savior Jesus Christ. May the Savior be revealed to us; otherwise in our need we will never come through. Grant that at this late hour for the world we may see him as he is, and through him and through the kingdom that he brings we may be lifted above the troubles of our time. Strengthen our hearts every day, and fill us with joy because you guide everything on earth as in heaven; in the end you will give us the victory that belongs to the kingdom you have founded. May we be comforted through all eternity in this kingdom, a kingdom far greater and more glorious than all the kingdoms of the world. Amen.